Dynamic OCONUS Achievements
The Europe/SWA region, Pacific Region and their contingency planners underscore the Exchange’s relevancy to military readiness and resiliency. Veteran Exchange managers Jason Rosenberg and Karin Duncan are heading the Europe/SWA and Pacific regions respectively as senior vice presidents. In other words, the regions are in good hands.
Until last month, the two regions were known as the OCONUS Region, with Duncan serving as the senior vice president and Rosenberg as regional vice president. Many successes occurred in OCONUS under their watches.
The new Wiesbaden shopping mall opened in 2015. Duncan and Rosenberg oversaw the right-sizing of Exchange facilities in Europe to correspond to troop drawdowns. They worked with the Logistics, Merchandising and Real Estate directorates to successfully relocate our distribution center from Giessen, Germany, to Germersheim.
She and Rosenberg also oversaw successful launches of new products, such as working with the Services, Food & Fuel Directorate to begin making Krispy Kreme doughnuts at Germany’s Gruenstadt bakery.
As senior VP over OCONUS, Duncan led Europe to the highest earnings percentage (DOR) since the 1990s for three straight years. The financial earnings for the entire OCONUS Region consistently exceeded plan for three years in a row under Duncan’s leadership.
One of Duncan’s most astounding accomplishments as OCONUS senior vice president was when she oversaw the team’s negotiations with U.S. Forces Japan on the Exchange’s withdrawal plan from the government of Japan funding, saving $43 million to $70 million in earnings for the Pacific Region over 15 years.
Since 2014, the OCONUS Region has set up nearly 180 remote stores to support military exercises. In 2016, associates in both the Pacific and Europe worked very hard serving U.S. troops deployed to military exercises, and this year is bringing even more opportunities to demonstrate the Exchange’s unique expeditionary capabilities.
In April 2016, at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center in western Ukraine, the Exchange opened a 10-foot-by-10-foot, troop-run store stocked with basic necessities for the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine. Two months later, the Exchange served 30,000 U.S., NATO and multinational troops participating in Anakonda 16, the largest military exercise in on the continent since 1992. The Exchange deployed three mobile field exchanges (MFEs) and 15 associates to Poland.
In 2016, the Exchange operated stores in Bulgaria and Romania for troops supporting Operation Atlantic Resolve, a demonstration of U.S. commitment to peace and security in the region. The Exchange’s other facilities included three in Bosnia and three in Kosovo.
This past January, three Exchange MFEs and three field barbershops were deployed to three locations in Poland to support 3,500 troops bound for locations throughout Eastern Europe. It marked the first time Western forces were deployed on a continuous basis to NATO’s newly expanded eastern flank. Within the next five months, the Exchange will open two more troop facilities in Poland.
Additionally, 4,000 Soldiers of the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division are expected to deploy from Fort Riley, Kan., this fall to Europe for Operation Atlantic Resolve. Associates are already planning for the arrival of these troops to ensure the Exchange will be there to serve them on day one of their deployment.
Let’s not forget that that the Exchange still maintains facilities in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, serving our Nation’s Warfighters and their coalition partners in Southwest Asia and the Middle East.
“As we look back over all that we accomplished as a team in Europe and the Pacific and then look forward to accomplishments of the new Europe/SWA and Pacific regions, Jason Rosenberg and Karin Duncan are the perfect people to lead the Exchange to new heights fulling our mission of serving the Nation’s Warfighters and going where they go.”
– Director/CEO Tom Shull
As in Europe, contingency locations played a crucial role in the Exchange serving troops. In the Pacific in 2016, the Exchange served more than 12,000 Soldiers, Sailors and Marines in military exercises and expect to open more mobile field exchange throughout this year to support numerous exercises involving U.S. forces and coalition partners.
In a major project for the new Pacific Region, Duncan is working with Pacific Commander COL Scott Maskery, the Real Estate Directorate and thousands of associates who deployed voluntarily to adapt our scope of service in South Korea as 30,000 U.S. troops continue relocating from the northern part of the country to Camp Humphreys, which will become the largest U.S. Army garrison in Asia. As the troops move, our Pacific teammates will close stores at shuttered installations.
To prepare for Camp Humphreys to become the major enduring military hub, the Exchange opened in November a $6.2 million mini-mall, with an Express, Starbucks, Taco Bell, Subway, dry cleaners, barbershop and Military Auto Source. Later this year, the Exchange Pacific team will open a new 300,000-square-foot shopping mall, part of a “downtown” that will include the commissary and name-brand concessionaires. The 1.8 million square foot shopping area will serve as the heart and soul of Camp Humphrey’s community.
The 300,000 square foot Exchange will be the world’s third largest, behind KMCC in Germany and Kadena AB on Okinawa, Japan.
“As we look back over all that we accomplished as a team in Europe and the Pacific and then look forward to accomplishments of the new Europe/SWA and Pacific regions, Jason Rosenberg and Karin Duncan are the perfect people to lead the Exchange to new heights fulling our mission of serving the Nation’s Warfighters and going where they go,” said Director/CEO Tom Shull. “They and their associates are some of the best teams I’ve ever encountered in my retail career.
“I am very proud of all of them.”
